That’s pretty much the aim of tech firm NDS’s latest offering, which has developed a way to automatically turn a set top box into standby mode when it isn’t in use (it’s a long walk from the sofa to the TV, so few people manage this on their own, we’re told).
“Currently, an HD DVR can use as much power as a domestic refrigerator and we want to address this,” reckons James Field, the company’s technology director and ‘carbon czar’. “With this new auto standby feature, we can help our customers’ customers – namely, consumers of digital TV – to reduce their carbon footprint, with the additional benefit of lowering their electricity bills.”
It’s clearly good news, as standby consumes far less energy than a gizmo just whirring away without doing anything. Even so, Greenbang thinks it’s a shame that it can’t just turn it off completely. As NDS notes in its release, even in standby, these gadgets consume 10 watts of power.